ON COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUAL VICTIMS OF ABUSE OF POWER- I. Mallikarjuna Sharma.

“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels. - Albert Einstein.”

“If the hope of the world lies in human consciousness, then it is obvious that intellectuals cannot go on forever avoiding their large share of responsibility for the world, and hiding their distaste for politics under an alleged need to be objective. The intellectual should constantly disturb, should bear witness to the misery of the world, should be provocative by being independent, should rebel against all hidden manipulations, and should be the chief doubters of power and its incantations.” - Václav Havel.

“…it isn’t a matter of whether we are more scientists or more humanists; hopefully we will be some combination of both. … And it is not a matter of whether science is influenced by politics …, or whether we will inevitably make political choices in our work. Rather, it is a matter of making the right choices. The problem is not one of victimology having too much ideology or politics but rather the wrong ideology and politics: philosophies that have failed miserably in reducing victimization and helping victims. Overcoming this problem relies not on rejecting ideology but rather on devoting ourselves more fully to finding a politics that works. If we do not choose our politics, a politics will be chosen for us; indeed, it already has.” – Robert Elias.

Vicitimology, Rober Elias laments, is largely influenced by the currently more prevalent ‘law and order’ ideology but the need of the hour is for intellectuals to come out of that framework, think deep and wide about various ramifications in the society and lend a broad societal approach to the subject of victimology – moving forward from what is called ‘right realism’ toward the appropriate societal change ideologies. He also opines that the Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1985 does provide an opening for broadening how we define victimization by including the victims of abuse of political and economic power under that concept, but feels that even if we did so, we would still largely be excluding another significant source of victimization: that produced by corporations. He fears that the corporations, as non-governmental organizations, may not be included within the conventional definitions of ‘abuses of power’, even though they have enormous power, sometimes exceeding that of nation-states even. He emphasizes that corporations, moreover, produce extensive

Advocate practicing in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad; Editor, Law Animated World. Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician; ninth and last President of Czechoslovakia

(1989-1992) and the first President of Czech Republic (1993-2003). Professor of Politics and Teacher, Honors Humanities, in the University of San Francisco, CA, US.

Contd… 2 …

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harms, and far more victimization - measured in terms of injuries, deaths, and financial losses - than common crimes.1

In this context it would be instructive to know what exactly the referred to Declaration by the UN General Assembly says on this aspect. The Declaration consists basically of two parts dealing with two different sets of victims – A. Victims of Crime and B. Victims of Abuse of Power. The first part is more clear and precise since it takes into account persons who are affected by the already existing international or national laws of criminal liabilities. And in such situations it underscores the necessity of 1. Access to justice and fair treatment; 2. Restitution; 3. Compensation and 4. Assistance in regard to victims of crimes and lays down some broad guidelines. In the second part, it briefly deals with the category of abuse of political and economic power, which, in my opinion, need not be and may not be limited to, as Robert Elias apprehends, only state or public sector abuses but can also embrace and confront the problems of corporate crimes even. As such, it would be necessary and useful here to cite in toto the part B of the declaration:

“B. VICTIMS OF ABUSE OF POWER

18. "Victims" means persons who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that do not yet constitute violations of national criminal laws but of internationally recognized norms relating to human rights.19. States should consider incorporating into the national law norms proscribing abuses of power and providing remedies to victims of such abuses. In particular, such remedies should include restitution and/or compensation, and necessary material, medical, psychological and social assistance and support. 20. States should consider negotiating multilateral international treaties relating to victims, as defined in paragraph 18. 21. States should periodically review existing legislation and practices to ensure their responsiveness to changing circumstances, should enact and enforce, if necessary, legislation proscribing acts that constitute serious abuses of political or economic power, as well as promoting policies and mechanisms for the prevention of such acts, and should develop and make readily available appropriate rights and remedies for victims of such acts.”

1 Robert Elias, Paradigms and Paradoxes of Victimology, International victimology: selected papers from the 8th international symposium, 1994, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, 1996.

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If one carefully goes through the above 4 sections or clauses, it would be evident that the UN General Assembly has deftly drafted them and nowhere there is an indication that either the victims or the wielders of power should be public authorities only. Especially Clause 21 requires state parties to the declaration to be responsive to changing circumstances and to enact legislation “proscribing acts that constitute serious abuses of political or economic power as well as policies and mechanisms for the prevention of such acts” which can clearly mean and be directed to corporate bodies even. It is obvious that economic power can be and is being wielded by corporate bodies all over the world.

There is no gainsaying that a philosophy and an ideology that glorifies money-making and adores millionaires and billionaires as leaders or role models of society and a system that accentuates greed for profit and power at the cost of rest of the society and leaves it to the ‘invisible hands’ of the so-called ‘free market’ to regulate the society at large is itself a menace to the welfare and happiness of the humankind. We know and have seen how this system gives rise to ugly corporate wars and also real wars for division of spoils to grab precious natural resources for vested interests at the cost of millions of ignorant, innocent and unfortunate poor and needy peoples all over the world. The very booming industries of weapons of death and staggering profits made by merchants of death all round the world can be seen as an indubitable proof of universal victimization engendered and practiced by this system of society i.e. the capitalist system which is rampant today, unfortunately, almost all over the world. Even countries like ours which bombastically proclaim in the preambles to their constitutions as “having resolved to constitute … into a SOVEREIGN SECULAR SOCIALIST REPUBLIC and secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; … EQUALITY of status and opportunity…” etc. but pursue and promote policies of greed and making a fast buck at the cost of welfare and humanitarian ends and in subversion of their own directive principles of policy toward securing – that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good; and that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment; and to make effective provisions for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want – etc. are in reality rapidly developing capitalist entities which vicitimize whole sections

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of people for the profit and enjoyment of a handful of industrial, commercial and political tycoons.

A single illustration of the overawing wealth and revolting display of the same by Ambanis, especially Mukesh Ambani, by way of construction of his Antilia – a 27-storey palatial building with three helipads, six floors of parking and a series of floating gardens, and doubtful whether yet used as his main residence – which has been criticized as “an ostentatious display of wealth in a country where most people live on less than $2 a day and a city where more than half the population lives in slums” will do for the purpose of indicting this inhuman and unequal system. The same system again doles out huge privileges and facilities to the same tycoons by way of arbitrary increase in gas prices – in the instant case by the arbitrary decision of the Union Government to double the gas price from the existing $4.2 (Rs. 262.25) per mmbtu (million British Thermal Unit) to $8.4 (Rs. 524.20) per mmbtu, making the gas prices in India one of the highest in the world – which will result in doubling of gas prices from 1 April this year (2014), and that will make the life of common man miserable since it will have a cascading effect on transport, domestic gas and even electric prices, which will cost the country a minimum of Rs. 54,500 every year at the same time enabling the RIL (Ambanis) to make a future windfall of Rs. 1.2 lakh crores, and all this due to active collusion between RIL and some ministers of the central government. And against this nasty development, on the complaint by eminent citizens – former cabinet secretary TSR Subramaniam, former Navy Chief Admiral RH Tahiliani, former Secretary to Government EAS Sarma and noted Supreme Court advocate Kamini Jaiswal – the Delhi Government, under the anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal, had quite recently ordered the anti-corruption branch to register an FIR against the chairperson, RIL, Mukhesh Ambani, Union Petroleum Minister M. Veerappa Moily, former Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and former director general of Hydrocarbons VK Sibal under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. This phenomenon is clearly victimization of the whole society – save for a few super rich upstarts benefiting – by the deliberate abuse of political power by the ministers and officers of the state organs, as also of economic power by the industrial tycoons, who too joyously collude with each other to draw sadistic pleasure in the enormous sufferings due to economic losses and social and psychological travails of the masses at large. Since this is the inexorable logic and inevitable consequence of the solely profit oriented capitalist system, it would not be incorrect to state that the capitalist mode of production and the

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superstructure of various societal relations built on it are by themselves the chief victimizers in the society and unless this system is radically changed to one of social control, social planning and social welfare – call it communism or socialism or social democracy or whatever – victimology will always perpetuate itself with the victim society left languishing without any efficacious cures.

I will not take much space engrossing on many illustrations of corporate victimization, environmental degradation and drug peddling etc. causing collective and individual victimization or unfair labor practices producing the same disastrous result for the real creators of goods and wealth but think two or three stark examples would suffice here. I purposely and frequently remarked in several speeches and articles that corporate victimization can even ascend [or descend] up [or down] to the level of corporate cannibalism. It is not just a hyperbole but a gory reality. I was a witness, though a delayed indirect witness, to the horrible consequences of the world’s worst industrial disaster – the Bhopal Zahreeli Gas Kaand [The Bhopal Poison Gas Incident] – as it is popularly and colloquially known. Immediately on the outburst of the news relating to that shocking accident, so many rumors were afloat among people – that thousands or perhaps even one lakh died, their corpses were secretly carted out in trucks to unknown destinations and mass cremated, Bhopal was reduced to a ghost city, etc. and it did not take much time for those to reach our ears too. At that time I was active as the Secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Hyderabad and also as Convener, Marxist Study Forum, and one cannot imagine the amount of peer pressure in demanding to magnify the deaths and damages caused by that disaster and the fury and agony at the media trying to downplay the losses occurred therein, etc. Also the real cause of that accident was enigmatic and before the ‘Methyl Icocyanate (MIC) is the real cause’ contention gained ground and much credence, there was a widely prevalent opinion about a poisonous gas Phosgene being the real cause. We took out a detailed pamphlet cum petition to the President of India delineating the gory consequences of that unfortunate accident and the probability of Phosgene, a war gas banned by international conventions like the Geneva Convention being the real or main cause, the absolute recklessness of the multinational company Union Carbide in the entire episode violating all national and international law norms and put the casualty figure at about 20,000 deaths and several more injured – which was deemed quite higher by the media assessments which tried to downplay that to some 3000-4000 deaths but was again considered low by our activist friends who would still swear that it

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should be around one lakh or so. Now after all these years I am glad that even the Government estimates have almost confirmed that cautious figure put forth by us but everybody seems to have discarded the ‘Phosgene war gas (poisonous gas) is the cause’ argument put forward by us – unfortunately without any intellectual and scientific discussion on the same. Be that as it may, what I want to stress here is the enormity of corporate cannibalism in this context and the abuse of both political and economic power in this case. I think the below quote from one of my own articles around that time (in January 1985 or so) would suffice to expose the gross criminal negligence of the multinational company as also the evil nexus between the corporate and political cannibals that resulted in this havoc:

“…now, we have ample information about the production process of phosgene, MIC and the hazards posed by them and the necessary safety measures to be taken up. Especially safety in handling is reported to depend to a great extent on the effectiveness of employee education, proper safety instrumentation, alert supervision and the use of safe equipment. In this particular case of the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal, we find each of these requirements in effective absence. India Today (31 December 1984) reports thus: “In 1977-78, when work on the MIC plant started, only first class B.Sc. graduates or those with a diploma in engineering were taken as operators. They were subjected to six months’ theoretical training and then trained on the job. That is no longer true, and there are cases of operators without an academic science background and, what is more, they no longer have to undergo the same rigorous training as before. Some operators are matriculates from other plants or units. Worse still, the number of staff has been cut down because of financial problems.” It is quite possible that the secret deals of the Union Carbide management with the Union and State Governments have much to do with this recruitment of ineligible and untrained personnel. Moreover, Mr. Vijay Gupta, the legal advisor of the U.C. plant is said to be a Congress-I leader and close supporter of Chief Minsiter, Arjun Singh. A nephew of the former Education Minister Mr. Narsingrow Diskhit is a public relations officer of the U.C. plant. The company’s guest house at Shyamala Hills was always at the disposal of the Chief Minister Arjun Singh (see Indian Express, 5-12-1984). This political clout of the company was the cause for degeneration in the recruitment of personnel as well as for the defence of its misdeeds by the M.P. and the Union Governments . Even the report of the three US experts regarding the safety measures in the plant found much fault with the safety system there and it is now well-known that the plant at Bhopal did not have the computerized safety-warning system which was installed in the mother-plant in West Virginia, U.S.A. Moreover, the way in which the Union Carbide Management is going all out to deny any presence of phosgene inside the plant raised many an eyebrow. Even Dr. Varadarajan of CSIR, who otherwise was so willingly obliged to the UC people in declaring that it was MIC ‘gas’ which was responsible for the killings, had to admit the presence of phosgene in the plant. This only implies that the U.C. people have been hiding the fact of phosgene production from the beginning and they lied in this respect to the Union and the State Governments as well as to the people

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in general. We have already learnt that practically all phosgene manufacture is captive i.e. it is used in the manufacture of other chemicals within the plant boundary. This implies that phosgene is not to be stored for long times, but has to be produced as and when required so as to be immediately used for further processing. This ought to be the same case with MIC also. But all these restrictions in case of both these intermediate products seem to have been thrown to winds – all rules and regulations in this regard seem to have been blatantly violated. Even the fact of MIC production was sought to be suppressed and at first the Union Carbide management circulated the big lie that they are importing the MIC. But when this lie was refuted by its own mother corporation in the USA, they had to admit the fact of indigenous production of MIC, but regarding the presence and production of phosgene they are still lying. This is because once they admit this fact they would be in for many-a-trouble, even international censure for their criminal negligence, criminal violation of international regulations and criminal acts of deceit and lying. So naturally they want and try their best to suppress this fact and put the sole blame for the disaster on the MIC ‘gas’. In this hideous maneuver they are being actively assisted by the Union and the State governments and also by the monopoly capitalist press of our country . Most of the scientists, chemists, doctors and other experts are also discreetly silent on this aspect. In such a situation where the very presence and production of phosgene is being denied by the UC people, one can in nowise expect its employees to possess any adequate knowledge about the great hazards that killer gas poses and the ways and means to counter such hazards. As to the lakhs of innocent people of Bhopal one can only guess the holocaust to which they were subject due to the havoc played by a gas against which even professional soldiers were advised not to take any chances. That there have been annual accidents in Bhopal plant ever since it started its production in 1980, that on 26 December 1981, a plant operator Mohammed Ashraf was killed following a leakage of phosgene gas, and that a local journalist Raj Kumar Keshwani has written soul-stirring appeals in his ‘Rapat Saptahik’ (Weekly Reporter) and also in ‘Jansatta’ about the impending disaster are too well-known to be enumerated in detail. That the political clout of the company saved it each time and that the then Labour Minister Tarasingh Viyogi had so superciliously told Mr. Mahendra Karma, MLA, in the State Assembly in December 1982 that a sum of Rs. 25 crores had been invested on the plant, that it was not a small stone to be shifted elsewhere and that there was no danger to Bhopal nor would there be any in future are also equally well known. This only enhances the culpability of the State Government of Madhya Pradesh many times over and it is only reasonable that it should have at once resigned in the wake of such a holocaust. But since the Chief Minister Arjun Singh still unashamedly continues in office, it is quite correct on our part to have demanded his dismissal; likewise the Union Industries and Chemicals Ministers cannot also escape from their culpability and they too ought to quit. This being the worst industrial disaster in the world, it is only just and reasonable that an International Commission of Inquiry be ordered at once and the United Nations help and guidance immediately sought. Also the entire assets of the Union Carbide Corporation have to be immediately confiscated by the Union or State Governments. The people of our country have to rise to the occasion and fight

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vigorously for realizing the above demands. Of courts, it is quite true that it would not suffice even if all these demands are conceded and what is especially needed is a total change in the present policy of industrialization. A real humanity oriented and labour intensive industrialization process, with adequate protection to the existing environment, is the need of the day and this involves bitter struggle against the multinationals, and their Indian touts and allies. The sham Socialist measures of the Union and State Governments which only develop private capitalism and drive for money-making more and more have to be countered and effectively fought. But first things first please. Let us first concentrate on the immediate demands ensuing from this unprecedented holocaust in Bhopal and in course of time work for more just, egalitarian and humanity conscious policies, programmes and system.” (emphases mine)

It should be added that to this day the Bhopal Gas victims and their families have not received adequate care or compensation and even on the intervention, or perhaps because of the intervention, by the Supreme Court of India, a relatively meager amount of 470 million dollars was finally settled for all the thousands of victims – families of about 20,000 dead and the thousands of others injured – which, according to our good friend Dr. Ramana Dhara, who was also active on the medical and social field along with us from at the time of the disaster, was quite low compared to the enormous compensation Barrack Obama extracted from the British Petroleum company for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill which caused almost no human deaths but only lot of pollution and perishing of certain marine species. Dr. Ramana Dhara, in a quite recent TED-MED talk in US, lamented that whereas the Bhopal Gas Disaster victims received only a total of some 470 million dollars amounting to just $500 per injured and around $3000 per dead victim’s family, some 20 billion dollars was extracted by the US President from the BP just as interim relief. This shows the crass discrimination, the inequity and injustice so evident on its face as regards reaching relief to the victims of such disasters in the developed and developing countries and above all the inefficiency, impotence and failure of our country’s political and judicial systems to demand and extract the right amounts of compensation and proper measures of rehabilitation and stern steps of punishment of the guilty victimizers.

It may also be noted in this context that several members of the International Medical Commission on Bhopal Disaster had seriously criticized this stark discrimination in reaching right relief to the victims in these two cases thus:

“The recent $20-billion fund made available to the U.S. government by BP for the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico has unwittingly highlighted a double standard in the dispensation of justice for the two disasters. The Gulf oil spill is, undoubtedly, ghastly but it is as yet much smaller in scale and consequences than the Bhopal disaster. According to the official figures published by the Indian government, 3,500 people were killed outright with the subsequent death toll claimed to be in excess of 15,000. Union Carbide abandoned the plant after the disaster and has been accused of failing to clean up the site,

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exposing local people to water supply contaminated with toxic chemicals. The deep water tables in Bhopal and surrounding areas are now considered to be at risk of contamination. Even though Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide's assets, it has refused so far to take responsibility for its liabilities.While there were Congressional hearings to hold BP publicly accountable for the Gulf oil spill, similar action did not occur for Union Carbide's monumental disaster in Bhopal, even though the company was cutting jobs, decreasing safety training, cutting maintenance costs, and using inferior technology in Bhopal compared to a similar plant in Institute, West Virginia. It took 17 years for the Indian government to obtain a once-for-all settlement of $470-million compensation on behalf of the victims — a meagre sum compared to the interim compensation fund of $20 billion, set up by BP.The BP fund was set up without knowledge or evidence of injury/loss of human life, apart from those who were on the rig at the time of accident. Yet in Bhopal, without knowing the size of the damage — for example, the number of people who died or assessing the levels of disability and the effects of long-term morbidity amongst the survivors — the full settlement for compensation was agreed at $470 million. This agreement between the government of India and Union Carbide was considered by the victims to be a violation of their human rights.If international human rights laws and principles are to be applied, it is clear that there is a vast chasm between the current approach to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Bhopal victims and their environment. Transnational corporations must be under exactly the same set of obligations, no matter where their operations take place in the world. We support holding those responsible for the Bhopal disaster to account in the same way as those responsible for the BP Gulf leak.” [The Hindu, 4 August 2010]

And, as per a Wikipedia report, “The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest accidental release of oil into marine waters in history, resulted in severe environmental, health and economic consequences [initial oil rig explosion killing 11 persons and injuring 17, and largest oil spill in history of about 5 million barrels of oil affecting the coastal seas of several American states and killing lot of marine species]. The company (BP) pled guilty to 11 counts of felony manslaughter, two misdemeanors, and one felony count of lying to Congress, and agreed to pay more than $4.5 billion in fines and penalties, the largest criminal resolution in US history. Legal proceedings expected to conclude in 2014 are ongoing to determine payouts and fines under the Clean Water Act and the Natural Resources Damage Assessment. BP faces damages of up to $17.6 billion in the trial.”

Another illustration of social victimology, in which category such disasters and/or destructive deeds can be grouped under, is more near-home – an eco-destructive campaign undertaken by the government and urban development and municipal authorities themselves in Hyderabad. This related to the deliberate destruction of the water-spread area of the historic Hussain Sagar lake and construction of a ‘Necklace Road’ filling up the

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waters with all trash and garbage and also permitting many commercial enterprises and above all a Railway Station to be built in the water-spread area which is against all canons of environmental law and justice and also directly violative of fundamental rights of citizens to clean waters, clean air and eco-harmony. A writ petition was filed by some adjacent basti-dwellers and social activists of the city, at first an injunction was granted against the construction of the railway station, but later somewhat hastily revoked and so the public interest litigation had to knock the doors of the Apex Court by way of appeal against such interim order. Fortunately, the Apex Court was alert to the risks and hazards of such environmentally harmful and damaging developments, ordered a single-person committee to inquire into the matter, and on his report, being satisfied by that the concerns of the petitioners and risk of harm to society and environment was real and pressing, passed an injunctive order restraining any constructions within 2 kilometres zone of the lake, ordered withdrawal of the writ petition also for its consideration, appointed another three-man committee, under a noted environmentalist and former secretary to the Union Government, known as Rajamani Committee. This Rajamani Committee has gone comprehensively into the entire matter and submitted a voluminous report confirming almost all the averments/allegations of the petitioners whereupon the Apex Court quite recently made the injunction absolute and remitted the matters back to our (A.P.) High Court for speedy disposal as per the guidelines issued by it within 4 months or so. But what is relevant here that despite people’s protests and objections the state authorities themselves have with impunity embarked on the destruction of the historic lake, now reduced to almost one-third of its once sprawling water-spread area, thereby seriously damaging the lung-space of the entire Hyderabad citizenry. And an I-Max theatre, a NTR Gardens, a People’s Plaza, an Eat Street, a Jala Vihar, etc. commercial enterprises and a Necklace Road MMTS Railway Station and the elegant Necklace Road itself which have come up in the ruins of this lake, or which have been built by ruining the lake, and are in ostentatious display and existence since about two decades now – will or can all of these be demolished to restore the glory of the sprawling water-spread of the city’s unique lake? Can the lung-space of the citizenry be at least restored if not enriched by any remedial measures and how long this litigation is going to take further – how many years/decades more before any equitable justice reached to the people of the city? This is another stark example of collective victimization by the state organs in collusion with corporate bodies.

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Now just one illustration of individual victimization by a corporate company. This company illegally and fraudulently transferred a part of its industry to some other more cunning and fraudulent company in order to easily get rid of its unwanted ‘surplus’ workmen without the usual legal constraints confronting it otherwise and also to sell away some valuable properties as real estate to reap some windfalls and in that course transferred its workmen also en masse like chattel without any consultation process and any tripartite accord. A workman who protested against this transfer and only asked for settlement of accounts as on that day of transfer and refused to join the transferee establishment was totally disowned and he had to knock the doors of the High Court for justice. Even after a decade his case is pending but meanwhile he suffered a heart attack for which despite incessant requests neither the corporate management nor even the provident fund authorities did not extend a paisa of help – from his own legally due arrears. He had to again pray the High Court for the release at least for release of his own provident fund as medical advance which after long gestation was ultimately granted but by this time he had fallen into lakhs of rupees debts for undergoing a heart surgery and the post-operation medical care which is a daily encumbrance on his frail resources, and is undergoing a lot of distress, suffering and humiliation and is rendered totally destitute. This is happening in spite of the protective social welfare legislation, which is unfortunately not clear enough and not insisting on speedy and decent remedies to the victims of corporate frauds and unfair labor practices. This particular development in that company has also resulted in collective victimization of the workmen of that company with more than a hundred among them thrown out from the workforce by various devious means. The laws arms may be long but not quick enough, or quite tardy and impotent, and as Anacharsis lamented and Balzac polished up: “Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”

I fully approve of Robert Elias saying, “…corporationslike statesare substantially responsible for creating the environments in which common crime flourishes. They help generate the economic conditionsfor the poor, and even for the rich, for example, that generate most crime. In other words, on both a micro and a macro level, corporations contribute substantially to worsening the crime problem, and to increasing victimisation. Thus, we in victimology have no choice but to focus on corporate harms, even if we confine ourselves to fairly narrow definitions of crime. …we have a choice. We can continue to ignore corporate harms or we can begin to take them seriously. If we choose the latter, then victim research and policy must devote itself to holding corporations responsible for the victimisation they generate, including initiatives that impose formal criminal liability for this behaviour. We should help demonstrate the devastating impact of these harms. We should expose the double standards and

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favouritism in state laws and policies toward corporate victimisation. And we should clarify the connection between unrestrained corporate power and the criminal victimisation it helps generate even at the hands of people not directly involved in the corporate sector.”2 This is to be naturally extended to the cases of abuse of political and economic power by the State authorities. The media also is in part to blame since it largely concentrates on the ‘law and order’ vicitimology aspects and ignores the societal victimization ideologies and strategies to a large extent.

As for suggesting any remedial measures, I can only say that stricter and more expeditiously efficient laws coupled with stringent and speedy enforcement mechanisms – with a decidedly social welfare and eco-friendly orientation – are quite necessary and the implementation part is more crucial than the enabling statutory part in many instances. The judiciary, above all, has to be pro-active and expeditiously justice-delivering with more bent on equity than the so-called legal justice in coming to the quick aid of various kinds of victims at least, if not in hurrying the punishment of the victimizers. There is simply no meaning in letting a victim bleed to death and then try to reach justice to him posthumously, if at all, through some crumbs thrown to the victim family. Likewise one cannot let the lung-spaces of entire communities be seriously injured and leave the suffocating society to some remotely future date of possible but quite uncertain surgical or medical remedy and recuperation. It may be needless to underscore that the most important remedy lies in the constant and alert watch and conscientious agitation and effort by the public at large, and the intellectuals in particular, against such rampant social evils.

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HyderabadUpdated 4 May 2014.

[I. MALLIKARJUNA SHARMA]

2 Robert Elias, Ibid.